76 réponses à ce sujet

[AmRMa]

I'll have them all in my party at one time or another, I usually have favorites I take with me most of the time but if there is a story line coming up where one companion will make more sense to bring I will switch them out.

[Lady Luminous]

I base it on which quest I'm going on, and who will be my best assets. I go back to camp to chat all the time, so I don't usually miss out on too much in terms of conversation, and I mix up my companion combos so I get a good majority of the banter, I think. 

[Innsmouth Dweller]

first i'd like to know more about specs/focus mechanics.

if it turns out i need to have party consisted of rogue, warr, and mage to even gain focus, i'll be pretty upset. not to mention i'd love to have at least one solo PT.

i guess i'll know more in October November

 

as for party composition (assuming ideal state - i can chose whomever i please) - my PC will have to speak with them before deciding. such was the case in DA2 - even if Anders was permanent member of my Awekenings party, first dialogue with him in DA2 made him my PC's most hated companion. didn't care about his banter much

[Jester]

I tend to rotate through squadmates a lot, but I usually go with Warrior, Rogue and 2 Mages, or Warrior, Mage and two Rogues. In Origins I sometimes used 2 warriors, but in DA2 it was suicidal, as Mighty Blow/Whirlwind would kill the second warrior. 

 

even if Anders was permanent member of my Awekenings party, first dialogue with him in DA2 made him my PC's most hated companion

 

I hated how Anders gets +XX rivalry points for supporting blood magic/demon deals, but somehow him murdering dozens of innocent people is just great.

[Estelindis]

I generally pick one companion for plot relevance to the quest area, whichever companion is my favourite (or next favourite, if my favourite is already covered), and one for party balance.

[SofaJockey]

I think when they said fairly early, they mean within the first 20 so hours or depending on how fast you play the game. It can differ by person. Unfortunately I have no source for that

 

OK that's interesting, thanks for that.

 

Assuming the average play through of DAO was around 60hrs
You would have 6 of your 9 companions in 20 hours

Not picking up Oghren until the 45 hour mark

ref: http://www.gamelengt...n Age: Origins/

 

In DA2 with an average play through of 45hrs

you would have everybody on board within 15 hours.

ref: http://www.gamelengt...s/Dragon Age 2/

 

So a 20 hour party collection does not leave you hanging the way DAO does for Oghren
and is slightly faster than DAO for picking up companions.

 

But it is a little slower than DA2. So it sits nicely between the other two.

 

Either way assuming this is the most dense Dragon Age game to date,

the first quarter of the play through will be with an incomplete party.

 

Notes:

 

Game lengths came from the interesting website: Gamelengths http://www.gamelengths.com/

 

For reference and comparison (median play times):

 

26 hours - Mass Effect

33 hours - Mass Effect 3

38 hours - Mass Effect 2

45 hours - Dragon Age II

60 hours - Dragon Age Origins

 

Expansions and DLCs excluded.
I have taken medians not mean averages as there are some atypical entries.
 

[Lady Sif]

I usually pick my favorites and LI. I do try and use everyone though.
In DAO my main party was Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana/Shale with a warrior or rogue Warden. With a Mage Warden I wouldn't use Morrigan very often if at all.

DA2 Fenris, Isabela, and Merrill/Anders. If I used a Mage then my party was Fenris, Isabela, and Varric/Aveline

For DAI I have a feeling my party will be Iron Bull, Cole/Sera, and Solas/Dorian

[LadyKoori]

Like someone earlier in the thread, I go with 2 ranged and 2 melee with at least one of each class. The rest is who I like the most character wise. 

 

My only concern with party building is about the healer. In Origins, Wynne was the obvious healer and in DA2 it was Anders. I may have missed a gameplay vid somewhere but so far the mages we see don't have any healing spells equipped it looked like. I know you can trait just about any mage to heal but certain characters do it better. Since Solas is the mage we've  (or at least I) haven't seen in vids, are we thinking he's the healing mage?

[Gtdef]

I'm playing on Nightmare, but I don't want to bring the most optimized party with me all the time and instead prefer to bring the more relevant guys with me. So instead I use the broken guys/spells a lot. To give examples.

 

For DAO it depends on the Warden. If he is rogue/warrior, then he needs 2 mages both with haste. If he is a mage, then he needs someone to pull the enemies into position.

 

This means that for Warrior/Rogue, I run with Morrigan+Wynne all the time. Leliana is the best last slot available because she is a bard but anyone can work. The second best is Alistair. For rogue specifically it's better to use Alistair early and for dragon fights, and Leliana late. That's because rogue can't survive without stealth and 70~ dexterity. Alistair provides the meat till rogue becomes god, then Leliana replaces him for the buffs.

 

Zevran can't replace Leliana before lvl 16, he is just too weak. He needs bard spec and song of courage, plus his starting talents are trouble. Alistair can be replaced by any warrior except for dragon fights. Shale is the next best, followed by Oghren but he needs to be recruited early cause autolevel destroys him. I always do Orzammar second after Circle.

 

Mage needs a warrior to get enemies into position. Alistair is the best for this job. A single warden mage has enough firepower to clear whole rooms by himself, so extra mages are just fluff. On the other hand, rogues become irrelevant cause the buffs/debuffs are not that good and have zero synergy. Essentially it's a 2man party. But the good thing is you can bring anyone with you without even bothering with tactics. Just make them focus fire elites or something.

 

Awakening goes along same guidelines with the added benefit that it's not balanced at all and the Warden can pretty much solo anything that doesn't involve the children.

 

As a final note, dw warrior can do with 1 mage, it's less optimal but it can be done cause he can stack momentum with haste. That's because of precise striking, which reduces attack speed. This allows for more choices in what companions to bring.

 

DA2 changes things a bit.

 

Basically, every party no matter the main class needs haste and ccc coverage. Anders brings haste, brittle (with petrify for assassin elites) and martyr which ends the cooldowns. He is the most overpowered companion in any party based rpg to date ^^

 

Then we have rogues with totally broken support skills and aoe ccc, and the good part is that any rogue can be used interchangeably, but Varric has the highest autoattack dps, and Isabela isn't good if you play as mage due to friendly fire. Still it leaves a lot of room for choice.

 

The last spot is free, but there are the obvious better choices. Mages and Rogues are strictly better than Warriors. The most beneficial is Merrill and rogue hawke can do with an extra rogue if he wants to. I generally avoid using warriors till the late into the act where I have a strong foundation so a rally/autoattack bot with cleave won't change the playstyle too much.

 

In a sidenote, Merrill is ridiculously strong. She pretty much soloed Sir Varnell and his mob. I was experimenting with Stone's Throw bombs. Basically you add a tactic that when a party member is surrounded by 3+ enemies, she blinks to him and uses Wrath of the Elvhen. The mob takes double damage from nature attacks, and they are weak and normal enemies. So what happened was I was charging into the enemy groups, she was blinking with the aoe active and killing everything almost instantly. Plus she has great ccc coverage and access to hex of vulnerability. And with some armor runes and rock armor she is tanky as fk. Mages overlords ^^

 

For DAI I just need to identify who is the broken character, and do the same.

[ClericalRodent]

I mostly roleplay my choices, but I do try to balance the party out too at the same time. Usually, I try having at least one of each class when going against boss battles. I'm more relaxed with simpler sidequests. I'll probably rotate them a lot until I find the setup that meshes the best with my character.

[ManOfSteel]

However I feel at the time. Sometimes I will use my favourites, sometimes I'll use characters that I think will most benefit the story, and others characters that form a well balanced party. Variety is the spice of life etc.

[LordGarm]

Since DA:O I tend to use a party of 2 warriors, 1 rogue and 1 mage or of 1 warrior, 1 rogue and 2 mages.

 

My (first) Inquisitor will be a warrior mostly accompanied by Cole and Solas.  The other slot will be very flexible, but I imagine that Cassandra, Blackwall and Dorian will be the most used of the remaining party members.

[DiscoGhost]

Until I get used to the game and work out who I like being around, and dependent on what order party members becomes available in, some combination of the following.
 

Mage      -     Nuke
Warrior   -     Meatshield
Rogue     -     Spike damage
Mage      -     CC/Heal

 

90% of the time i try to follow this because it just makes nightmare so much easier.

[Shelondias]

Since Varric's back he'll have a permanent spot on the roster.
Anyone else will come along as far as I think they'll have an effect on the storyline somehow.
Take the Iron Bull to Qunari heavy areas, and Sera to the alienage- stuff like that. see what happens

[TeamLexana]

First few times through, I try to go for efficiency with a warrior tank, mage for healing/cc, and a rogue for chests/traps and cc with me doing whatever I want, lol. Strolling around town picking up quests and stuff, I'll grab just whoever I think will have nice banter together. Eventually once I am comfortable with how the classes and their powers work, I'll take whoever I want and make them work together.

[mashasi]

I usually have one each class (+my character). I try to cycle different characters and pick the people who fit best with the current task.

[Voxr]

The first couple of playthroughs I just stick to normal/hard mode so I can focus on story and such so I don't really worry about party comp too much. I know Varric will have a spot all day erry day cause he's the only party member that is interesting to me so far. Though IronBull and Viviene look kinda interesting, and I'll find out on the others as I play with them.....*wink*

[Degenerate Rakia Time]

I take the 3 people i like the most regardless of class

[BioWareM0d13]

I always rotate the companions in and out for different missions and quests so that by the end I've used them all somewhat equally. Story is probably the most important aspect of Bioware games for me, and from a story perspective it doesn't make sense to have a companion who never gets selected and is gathering dust back at your camp or on the ship (Mass Effect). Also by rotating them all in & out you get to hear most or all of your companions' banter.

[TommyGunz0482]

I'm trying to not plan my game out before I get it, I don't want to go into it and be like this is my gameplan and I have to stick to it, and then miss out on stuff I might of liked otherwise. I'll just see how it goes with initial reactions, and then go from there

[TommyGunz0482]

I usually keep a balanced squad with the only set slots being a close combat rouge PC and my love intrest or in game bff

[Shin_Seijurou]

I am tempted to go the nuke route in my first playthrough. 3 mages and someone to draw aggro, probably.

[Faerlyte]

I pick whoever brings the most comic relief to my party. And doesn't annoy me. 

[PsychoBlonde]

I'm vaguely anticipating having Iron Bull and Varric along a lot of the time (and if they snipe at each other, I don't care).  Not really sure what the 3rd companion slot is going to be.  I'm sort of planning on playing a mage first again (I like mages in this series).  Cassandra or Blackwall might get the remaining slot most of the time, or it might just be a "cycle" slot that I use for whoever suits me at the moment.  That's usually how I play--one of each class then whoever has the coolest-looking hat.

[Magdalena11]

1 companion for fun/plot

1 warrior

1 rogue or mage (whichever I'm not)